Every word Southampton's Martin said ahead of final day trip to Leeds

How have you approached this week with the team, psychologically? 

RM: I think the importance of it is we'll have a lot of people going up paying a lot of money to travel and watch the game. We owe it to them and to ourselves to finish the season as well as we possibly can.

It's a great preparation for the playoffs. It'll be a good atmosphere. Or maybe it won't. The minute Ipswich score at home to Huddersfield, I don't know.

I think it'll be brilliant preparation for us, and we're getting ready for the two biggest games of our season.

But that means this game is so important for that in terms of stuff we want to see on the pitch. We've had some time to work on the training pitch this week, which has been so good because everyone was exhausted.

The energy's been so different this week. We had 10 or 11 games in 32 days or whatever it was. It was relentless. So we've hardly had any time on the training pitch. It's very much been play, recover, get ready for the next one.

To have some time on the training pitch this week has been brilliant. The energy has been very different. So last week was just the combination of a lot of things, really. I think fatigue is the main one.

I don't think we've had a schedule as busy as that all season. It was on the back of a three-week break as well, so it was an interesting time. Everyone seems in a good place this week.

I know they understand the importance of this game in terms of how it prepares us and gets us ready for, as I said, our two biggest games of the season.

Is that then a case of blocking out everything else around it and just trying to take what you want from the match?  

RM: Yeah, I don't think that feeling will come into it in the playoffs anyway. Of course, they don't deserve that with what they've given us this season.

I've said to you so many times, I'm grateful for what they've given us over the course of the season.

They've been amazing. That's how I feel this week. I'm annoyed and frustrated at last week.

I'm still annoyed and frustrated at some results during the season. But that's my job to feel like that and then to not let that have any impact on the preparation for this Saturday.

I think we will go there with always the challenge to be the team we want to be.

The players have done that on so many occasions this season. I really believe they will go to Elland Road tomorrow and put that on the pitch and then see where it takes us.

I'm getting excited about the playoffs because it is exciting, we have to start looking at it like that, don't we?

RM: I've been in the playoffs a few times as a player and there's been different approaches to like, you know, it's just normal season, carry on.

It's not. It's not. It's about mentality and it's about real preparation and real understanding of the occasion, being able to handle the occasion.

So, the last week, I think, dampens how people feel about the season and what the players have done. The long unbeaten run we went on, I feel really proud of the team and the players and what we've done this season.

I'd love to finish in the top two and I'll be eternally frustrated we haven't. But we have an opportunity to get to where we want to get to, to get to the Premier League, to do it in our way, playing in our way, which from the start of the season to now is, the players have made incredible strides and their belief in what they're doing is amazing.

If you'd have told me the team would look how it does now, after probably three-quarters of the squad told me they were going to leave the first day and now we are here, the change in style and the change in demands and culture and what we ask of them and how they interact with people and the staff, then I'd be really delighted.

The only frustration I have is because of some of the points we've dropped throughout the season.

But if you'd have said at the start of the season we'd be in this position with three games to get to the Premier League, playing in the way the players are playing, with the pride they have in what they're doing, then I'd have been probably quite happy and probably a bit surprised.

How are the squad fitness-wise?

RM: I think some will play, but they just won't play 90 minutes. 

That would be madness but we want to get them ready, and some will maybe not play and we'll just wrap them up a little bit for the playoff.

Big Ross will be on the bench, which is fantastic for us. I want him to get on the pitch and I want him to be ready for the playoffs. I think it could be a big boost for us.

He's trained brilliantly, he's in a great place, he was chomping at the bit.

He was furious at me for not being on the bench on Saturday, so we were in here that morning and put him through a big session with the guys that hadn't played.

He worked so hard and he just wanted to be on the bench and now he has that opportunity. He'll get on the pitch at some point, all being well, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Sekou is out, he's the only one. He felt his adductor, he had a shot with his left foot when he went through and he felt that, so he'll be out, but he should be back next week. 

You're not in front of your own fans, you're away. They will be looking at what's going on at Portman Road and it could be an absolute damp squid by about half-time. 

RM: I don't know their approach to it, but I don't think you can ever go to Elland Road in the Championship as Southampton manager and not be under any pressure, or as a team here, not be under any pressure.

You feel that pressure every day. It's an absolute privilege to have that. I'm extremely grateful to be in this position and be the person that's able to lead the team out of places like this and then take the team into the playoffs.

It's an incredible privilege. So, always pressure, always pressure and the players will put pressure on themselves to implement the stuff we've worked on in training.

We'll put pressure on them to do it and then they'll feel the pressure of a huge crowd, however, that crowd is, depending on the Ipswich game and all that stuff, but we can't focus on any of that.

The pressure is internal, is our own and about the stuff we want to see on the pitch.

You could play Leeds again in the playoffs, can you keep things back in an NFL style to surprise them should you face them again?

RM: I think there's a bit of, we might try a few things. There'll be a bit of learning from this game for us, stuff we can take forward, and stuff we can't.

But ultimately, no, I think a team has the opportunity to watch 46 games and prepare for you, to play against you twice.

There's not too much you can hide in that. So, yeah, I don't think we can read. I don't even think we can go too far into that.

Set plays, possibly. I'll leave that to Gilly and the gang and Colin and they've done a great job with that since Andreas left. Yeah, it's exciting, I'm looking forward to it and we need to perform.